Animal Crossing: New Leaf Co-Director Has Left Nintendo

Isao Maro was the co-director of Animal Crossing: New Leaf. He has worked mainly on the Animal Crossing series at Nintendo and was the co-director of the last mainline game in the series. He worked along with Aya Kyogoku on New Leaf that was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. This was the last traditional Animal Crossing game and the subsequent releases so far have been mostly spin-offs or a mobile project.

While Aya Kyogoku is still working as a producer on the recent Animal Crossing projects including the mobile release Pocket Camp, Isao Maro has left Nintendo according to an update shared on his official Facebook profile page. The update doesn’t list any specific date but simply confirms that he left Nintendo in 2018.

There hasn’t been a new proper game in the series since New Leaf was released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2012. It was a record-breaking launch for the series in Japan and it ended up being one of the best selling games there. The game was also an incredible success in the Western market but despite that, there hasn’t been a proper follow up to it so far.

Nintendo hasn’t shared any details about a potential Animal Crossing game for the Nintendo Switch but considering the current popularity of the series, it might happen one day.